temper

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) A general tendency or orientation towards a certain type of mood, a volatile state; a habitual way of thinking, behaving or reacting.
2. (countable, uncountable) State of mind; mood.
3. (countable, uncountable) A tendency to become angry.
4. (countable, uncountable) Anger; a fit of anger.
5. (countable, uncountable) Calmness of mind; moderation; equanimity; composure.
6. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) Constitution of body; the mixture or relative proportion of the four humours: blood, choler, phlegm, and melancholy.
7. (countable, uncountable) Middle state or course; mean; medium.
8. (countable, uncountable) The state of any compound substance which results from the mixture of various ingredients; due mixture of different qualities.
9. (countable, uncountable) The heat treatment to which a metal or other material has been subjected; a material that has undergone a particular heat treatment.
10. (countable, uncountable) The state of a metal or other substance, especially as to its hardness, produced by some process of heating or cooling.
11. (countable, historical, uncountable) Milk of lime, or other substance, employed in the process formerly used to clarify sugar.
12. (countable, uncountable) A non-plastic material, such as sand, added to clay to prevent shrinkage and cracking during drying or firing; tempering.

Verb

1. To moderate or control.
2. To strengthen or toughen a material, especially metal, by heat treatment; anneal.
3. To adjust the temperature of an ingredient (e.g. eggs or chocolate) gradually so that it remains smooth and pleasing.
4. To sauté spices in ghee or oil to release essential oils for flavouring a dish in South Asian cuisine.
5. To mix clay, plaster or mortar with water to obtain the proper consistency.
6. To adjust, as the mathematical scale to the actual scale, or to that in actual use.
7. (Latinism, obsolete) To govern; to manage.
8. (archaic) To combine in due proportions; to constitute; to compose.
9. (archaic) To mingle in due proportion; to prepare by combining; to modify, as by adding some new element; to qualify, as by an ingredient; hence, to soften; to mollify; to assuage.
10. (obsolete) To fit together; to adjust; to accommodate.

Synonyms

disposition

mood

nature

harden

character

temperament

humour

humor

anneal

moderate

season

toughen

mollify

rage

😡

anger

💢

mitigate

spirit

soften

irritation

refine

quality

master

dander

tone down

passion

irritability

discipline

fire

🔥

strengthen

palliate

chasten

feeling

steel

personality

quick temper

snappishness

pettishness

pique

angry

😠

biliousness

allay

peevishness

proclivity

mind

normalize

bad temper

lessen

pacify

fortify

guts

Translations

humeur

templar

temperar

härten

temperen

stalen

temprare

harden

durcir

humor

Laune

umore

temperare

tempérament

abhärten

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈtɛmpə/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: temperen

Inherited from Old English: ġetemprian

Cognate with French: tempérer

In summary

From Middle English temperen, tempren, from Old English ġetemprian, temprian, borrowed from Latin temperō (“I divide or proportion duly, I moderate, I regulate; intransitive senses I am moderate, I am temperate”), from tempus (“time, fit season”). Compare also French tempérer. Doublet of tamper. See temporal.

Sentences

Temper is so good a thing that we should never lose it .